Greece: girl dies of carbon monoxide poisoning during cold snap

(Vatican Radio) A 13-year-old girl in northern Greece has died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a charcoal brazier which was used to heat her flat in northern Greece. Greek media reported that the girl, a Serb, was living with her mother in a dingy flat near Thessaloniki. Because her mother couldn’t make ends meet, the flat had no electricity to power the central heating, so she made do with a charcoal brazier. The mother also lost consciousness, but later recovered.

Carbon monoxide poisoning from charcoal braziers used to be fairly common in Greece, before the mass use of central heating. The news of the Serbian girl’s death broke amid growing complaints that many Greeks are finding it hard to make fuel payments for their heating this winter because of the lingering – and worsening – economic crisis. Many people switch on their heat for just a couple of hours a day, if that. But over the weekend a spate of cold and snowy weather swept over northern Greece, intensifying the heating crisis.

The Greek government this year raised taxes on all fuels, sharply dampening demand. The girl’s death in Thessaloniki at once triggered criticism from media commentators and from the left-leaning opposition Syriza party that the government is not doing enough to help the rapidly growing proportion of needy people in the country. Listen to this report from John Carr in Athens: